Looking for a new BBEG

[mostlyharmful]

I'm DMing a group on-line at the moment that's just trashed my last pre-made BBEG in the setting, we've been going a while and I'm just about out of fun ideas, anyone got a funky new villan?

The list of previous enemies is;
. A politicing sorcerour with the ear of the knig
. A tribe of Wererats which had infiltrated the thieves guild (no more thieves guild due to PC choppiness)
. A goblin encursion fromt he mountains in the east
. A series of pirate raids culminating in a big naval punch up
. and finally a big rabid werewolf barbarian/warshaper/thayan gladiator bounty hunter that the PCs have just finished pounding


The party is three players, a gnome wizard 12th, a human cleric 11th and a dwarven druid 12th


They're based out of a city called Tremask which is a big port that I've filled out pretty well so I'd prefer not to have them wandering off but with a wizard they can bounce around pretty fast so that's not a hard and fast rule.

There's sea to the west, a thick forest to the north controlled by isolationist elves and a range of east with critters in. South is mainly farmland and smaller trading ports with a semi unkown arabic feel southern countinent over the sea.

So where do I go, I'd like to test them without combat if possible as I've done that and want a new challenge.

Thanks for any help and stuff.

[Sly]

A half-fiend child. Her appearance has not yet developed any fiendish qualities but she is exceptionally violent. Give her high levels in Warlock or perhaps some sort of Wild Magic-using class to represent power without experience, set her loose levelling an entire village or killing someone important by accident. For extra flavour, give her bipolar disorder; when she's happy, she's a normal girl, when she's depressed, she kills. She's not possesed, so simply expunging demons won't help her, but can the characters justify killing her or impriosning her if she's not fully incontrol of her actions?

[mostlyharmful]

Oooo... accidental BBEG, Hmmm.. I think maybe swapping in half-fey instead of half fiend so people (the dwarf's a nutter) don't just thwack her straight away. Otherwise, woot.

[Sly]

Sounds good! Persoanlly, I'd just make her powerful enough that one character in the aprty couldn't take her down unsupported. Or have him hit her once and then she suddenly becomes all sweet and innocent. Later on, she does the same, and nails him in the back with an Eldritch Blast.

[AKA_Bait]

If you want, with a little tweaking, Silus the Rat Lich (in my sig) could be peeved about the wererats.

[Tweekinator]

How about an elven druid leading a cult from the north that wishes to destroy the city which they perceive as a blight upon Nature. You could make this about finding missing(kidnapped, sacrificed, etc) people or about stopping a horde of genocidal elves with treant and other nature-centric allies.

[factotum]

Why not have the King himself (the one who was being advised by the sorcerer) turn out to be a BBEG? Best thing about that is if the PCs are the only ones who find this out, and they kill him, they're then wanted people in this kingdom and they have to evacuate to somewhere else pronto!).

[Tweekinator]

but can the characters justify killing her or impriosning her if she's not fully incontrol of her actions?

Speaking as a player, we can justify killing anything.

[mostlyharmful]

and hence the half-fey rather than half-fiend, to at least try to give a moral quandry,

and Silas the Rat Lich is cool, Stolen "yoink"

[Zim]

The Yuan-ti are one of the most insidious villians I've ever run. They're smart, calculating and so deliciously evil. They can disguise themselves as humans (purebloods and tainted ones) too. That an the whole snake theme is enough to give Indiana Jones the shivers.

IMC the YT are kidnapping and turning key political figures into tainted ones to further thier nefarious schemes. They are also using doppleganger spies to act as imposters to replace people that they've had to kill (asking too many questions). Maybe this kind of paranoid "body snatchers" adventure might be fun for your group too.

[Xuincherguixe]

You could make the BBEG someone that doesn't want to be the BBEG. Everything around them happens out of their control, but something about them means that evil cycles around them.

So in a way, the BBEG is/are really the planners. The ones who lead the cult.

Maybe the thing is trapped. Or maybe it can't even move at all.

[Duke of URL]

I've always like the idea of a BBnEG, as in, Big Bad not-Evil Guy.

For example, maybe a charismatic populist or anarchist planning to overthrow the king in favor of a more "popular rule". His/her motives may be pure, and intended for the common good, but the unintended side-effects are what need to be stopped. (E.g., weakening the kingdom just before an invasion.)

[Hannes]

Go for a BBEG who knows all of his previous reincarnations, and finds that he is being reincarnated again. He doesn't want to be reincarnated. He wants to rest. He goes insane with remembering all the pain all at once. He sets off to destroy the world so that he can never be reincarnated again because life doesn't exist anymore. And no, it isn't because he's just a cranky old bastard... It's because the "good guys" took away everything he ever had for some reason or the other. This has been on my mind for some time, triggered by Iced Earth's song "Life And Death."

[Overlard]

Hmm, how about an enemy cabal? Dedicated to summoning some ancient evil?

Make the minions a mixed bag of challenges - assassin squads, chaos-wielding clerics, manipulative beguilers and so on. Keep the PCs on the back foot at all time, never sure of their foes' abilities.

The "BBEG" inner circle, a trio of characters, polar opposites of your PCs. Play them smart and strong. Make them the (competent) Linear Guild to your player's Order Of The Stick.

[Yeril]

An astral deva woman is being harrased by a rival Marilith demon, the deva cannot best the demon herself (and the players shouldn't be able to best the demon either on their own) but together they might.

Have the marilith contact the PC's sometime after they talk with the deva, offering them great rewards and power if they help her get rid of the pesky deva.

Now the Pc's have to choose with
A) Protect the Deva, Kill the Demon, do the right thing for a reward.
(Low on gold, maybe extra Exp)

B) Side with the demon and help do away with the Deva, the Marilith has promised a large reward, but might doublecross them and not supply such a grand reward, Perhaps the "Magical rewards" she promised is just a ordinary sack with some masterwork weapons and maybe a +1 longsword, and throw in a few minor magical items. Of course the opposite, she may reward handsomley as promised.
(Low on the exp, buy the GP is plentiful)

And either way the Players have gained a otherworldly ally..
Or even an enemy.

Edit: Hmm.. accualy this isn't very appropraitae and about 5 CR's off, perhaps a weaker demon? or a variation on the idea.

[Runolfr]

A doppelganger bard with maxed Disguise, Bluff, Acting, etc. Concentrate on spells and items that will maximize its strengths.

This is a character who can ruin the party's day without a confrontation. The doppelganger can impersonate party members or prominent members of the community. It should already have several established identities and accomplices who can cover for it.

This is the sort of character that doesn't kill the party, but discredits them. It may steal from them or pass information about them to their enemies. The party should have a hell of a time figuring out who keeps messing with them, and actually cornering the little freak will be just as difficult.

[Reinboom]

A half-fiend child. Her appearance has not yet developed any fiendish qualities but she is exceptionally violent. Give her high levels in Warlock or perhaps some sort of Wild Magic-using class to represent power without experience, set her loose levelling an entire village or killing someone important by accident. For extra flavour, give her bipolar disorder; when she's happy, she's a normal girl, when she's depressed, she kills. She's not possesed, so simply expunging demons won't help her, but can the characters justify killing her or impriosning her if she's not fully incontrol of her actions?

I must say I like this idea (though with my own tweaks to it of course) - not to use as a BBEG but would produce a fun side quest or story arc or something.
Thanks for posting this idea.

[Dementrius]

The high priest of the PC cleric's temple has lost his faith and has secretly become an Ur Priest, but is still leading the flock. His ultimate plan is to kill the god and take his place. To achieve this he does the following:

1. Secrets rituals of power in various sites to make them seem plausible.
2. Subtley push PC cleric in direction of rituals (in the forms of scrolls, ancient artifacts etc.)
3. These rituals give the PC cleric additional powers and a closeness to his god (the visage of the diety line of spells and a SLA will do nicely)
4. The rituals however, are in fact siphoning off the god's essence and weakening his link to his other worshippers - clerics of that diety (other than the PC) begin to get spell failure when casting divine spells
5. To counter the emergency and panic, more rituals must be hunted down, until the whole set is collected.
6. The last ritual will bring the god's essence to the material plane, in a weakened state, where the BBEG will try to kill it once and for all. Unfortunately for the cleric PC it will be trapped in his body by the last ritual.

Essentially the PCs are questing for the BBEG's MacGuffins without knowing it.

[Benejeseret]

A Nymph

Just a lonely, beutiful nymph with elite array, and advancements.

That fortitute save on blindness become very very high.

The nymph could have developed a self esteem issue needing peoples affection and re-assurance that she is pretty. Unfortunately everyone goes blind and so noone pays her attention....thus she gets sadder and more confused.

She has wandered into a large town and is causing utter chaos. She is not evil, but her effects on society are devistating. Maybe a blind cult has come to worship her and doing all sorts of evil acts to lavish her in stolen goods, wealth and luxury.

She unfortunately is just a clueless ditz.

Maybe call her Paris for kicks

[Viscount Einstrauss]

A great plot twist is to turn the players themselves into the BBEG. Perhaps they mess something up real bad and everyone wants them dead. So they get attacked by parties of heroes who don't want to hear their excuses.